Man killed crossing expressway

March 19, 2009

A 51-year-old man was struck and killed as he tried to run across the Bishop Ford Freeway on the Far South Side late Wednesday, state police said.

The man, identified as Kevin Cross, was hit by a Cadillac car shortly after 11 p.m. as he tried to cross the southbound lanes of the I-94 freeway, according to Illinois State Police Master Sgt. Joe Stengl.

"We have witnesses that said the guy was just running across the highway," Stengl said.

No one else was hurt, but the two women inside the Cadillac were traumatized after the incident, the sergeant said.

It was unclear why the man was running across the road, but Stengl said there was no indication that a vehicle had broke down or any other apparent reason he may have been on the road.

Only one southbound lane was open to traffic for a few hours overnight while investigators conducted an investigation and Cook County medical examiner's officials responded to take the man's body to the Stein Institute.

Cross, whose last known address was in the 4600 block of South California Avenue, was pronounced dead there at 1:15 a.m., a medical examiner's office spokesman said.